Saturday, January 14, 2017

Living Purposefully

Today I want to let you in on a little secret. I have started 2016 with a great deal of intensity... to the point of almost wearing myself out. But the secret is this: Even though I am tired, I feel so much better about myself when I am accomplishing much than when I had no idea what to do next and thus did nothing.

As you probably know, last year was a really hard year. I spent a lot of time staring off into space trying to process the last hard thing that had happened and trying to recover emotionally and mentally from the last blow. So it is really great to start 2017 with little drama and the chance to live differently.

Having everything written down and tracking everything really helps me. The bullet journal does that for me -- but it could be anything organizational. I just have a plan of what I'm going to do to fill my dead time. This keeps me from sinking into my time killer which is a combination of Candy Crush and Netflix and it can consume so much time. I'm 53 and time is running out for me to change the world..... Even if I live a really long life, it's already half over.

So I have made lists:

A list of 12 leadership books I want to read. I have already finished one.

A list of 24 articles/books I want to read about Trauma Informed Care. I am halfway through one.

A Bucket List that Bart and I wrote together of fun things that we want to do before the year ends. We wrote the list in the first week of August and then the first of September our daughter moved in with her two kids and we started babysitting five nights a week. We got away from the bucket list. But we have resurrected it, I put it in Trello, and we have completed two things on it and scheduled two more.

And I have set goals:

To memorize Philippians during 2017;

To read the Bible through in 2017.

To blog every day.

To write another book in 2017.

To get my diabetes numbers down.

I am also thinking about subscribing to a few productivity and leadership podcasts to listen to on the road.

So, when I come to a slump, I have plenty to do. I can grab one of the books I'm reading, or grab my phone and read through the chapters for the day or listen to a verse over and over. I can schedule something from my bucket list. I can read an article, or head to the computer to blog.

It's been really good for the first 14 days. I like living purposefully. It is more tiring, but it feels so much better!